After a three-week hiatus, the Birmingham Womens Lacrosse team stung the competition with an 18-7 win over the Detroit Country Day Yellowjackets on Thursday, April 15.
The girls started their season with a win over Ann Arbor Pioneer on March 24, followed by some Spring training in Disney World over Spring Break.
After losing seven starters from last year’s State Championship squad, these first games, along with Spring training, were a good chance for the team to gain the experience needed to make a post-season run.
“We’re very young and inexperienced and we want to get everyone a lot of playing time,” said coach Jen Dunbar.
Even with this lack of experience, Dunbar believes that the Lady Bulldogs team chemistry is its greatest strength.
“I think [our biggest strength is] going to be team chemistry,” said Dunbar.” It’s a great group of girls and they’re hard workers- all of them.”
After the break, a little rust was evident as both DCD and BWLAX controlled possession equally in the first half. The rust began to wear off near the end of the first half when Senior Captain Kate Murray scored with eight seconds left, giving BWLAX a 7-3 lead going into the half.
“This was kind of like starting our whole season over again,” said Dunbar. “We had three weeks since our first game. We started off a little slow at the beginning of the game but we really picked it up.”
Luckily for the girls, they became a well-oiled machine in the second half. The defense continued to play strong even with the absence of senior Dana Klindt, allowing only four goals in the second half.
“I think the team played really well as a whole,” said Murray. “Our defense was really strong and we were missing Dana who is usually our leader on defense.”
DCD was not without its chances, however. The Yellowjackets had more success finding the posts than the netting. But when the ball didn’t hit a post or go over the net, senior captain Calla Glavin was there to stop the ball.
This strong defense led to a productive offense as the Lady Bulldogs scored 11 goals in the second half.
Regardless of the score, Murray still believes the team needs to work on their transitions from defense to offense, while Dunbar wanted the girls to work on intensity for their games on April 17 and 18, when the Lady Bulldogs headed south to Ann Arbor to play two Chicago teams; Two teams that Dunbar believes intensity will be critical to winning the game.
“I think really the Chicago teams are going to bring a faster paced game and a much more aggressive game,” said Dunbar. “So, the way we started to the way we finished, we really picked up the intensity- and that’s what we have to take into this weekend.”
This intensity was evident in the Lady Bulldog’s first game, an 11-8 win over the Glenbrook North Spartans. Unfortunately for the girls this intensity was replaced with a flatness in a 10-9 loss to the Glenbrook South Titans.
“Our win Saturday was a solid effort,” said Glavin. “We were a little flat at [Sunday’s] loss.”
Through each game, win or loss, the girls improve their already tremendous team chemistry, as well as their skills. Playing against the Chicago teams did not deviate from this.
“This weekend gave us more of the playing time that we need to improve our skills in all sorts of situations,” said Glavin.
As the season continues, look for the Lady Bulldogs to continue to improve on their 3-1 record, and make a run for a fourth straight State Championship.
